Jeremiah 51:57

And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(57) I will make drunk her princes.—The imagery is repeated from Jeremiah 51:39, and carries out the thought of Jeremiah 25:15-16; Jeremiah 25:27. On the list of officers see Note on Jeremiah 51:23.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Every one ... - Or, "Their bows are broken, for Yahweh is a God of recompenses; He will certainly requite."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

57. (Jer 51:39; Da 5:1, &c.).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Drunken men use to fall asleep. The prophet speaks here metaphorically. His meaning is, that the Lord would fill them with the wine of his fury, mentioned Jeremiah 30:15,16, and upon the drinking of it they should sleep their last sleep, the effects of it should be their utter ruin and destruction. Yet there seemeth to be an allusion to the posture the king of Babylon, and the thousand of his lords, mentioned Daniel 5:1, were in, when their city was taken (which, as was before said, was in the time of the festival of their idol Shach,) when they were drinking wine in the bowls that were brought from the temple at Jerusalem, Jeremiah 51:3 Jeremiah 51:30, it is said, In that very night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will make drunk her princes,.... With the wine of divine wrath; that is, slay them; though there may be an allusion to their being drunk with wine at the feast Belshazzar made for his thousand lords; who are the princes here intended, together with the king and his royal family, Daniel 5:1;

and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: the counsellors of state, priests, magicians, and astrologers; officers in the army, superior and inferior ones; and the soldiers and warriors, whom Cyrus and his men slew; when they entered the city; compare with this Revelation 19:18;

and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake; be all asleep in their drunken fits, and be slain therein; and so never wake, or live more. The Targum is,

"and they shall die the second death, and not come into the world to come;''

See Gill on Jeremiah 51:39;

saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts; the King of kings and Lord of lords; the Lord of armies in heaven and earth; and can do, and does, what he pleases in both worlds.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will {h} make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

(h) I will so astonish them by affliction that they will not know which way to turn themselves.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

57. her governors and her deputies] Cp. Jeremiah 51:23; Jeremiah 51:28, and for the latter part see on Jeremiah 51:39.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 57. - Her captains, and her rulers (see on ver. 23). Jeremiah 51:57

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet in the spirit sees these destroyers as already come. A cry of anguish proceeds from Babylon, and great destruction; cf. Jeremiah 50:22, Jeremiah 50:46, and Jeremiah 48:3. For (Jeremiah 51:55) Jahveh lays waste Babylon, and destroys out of her קול גּדול, properly "the loud voice," i.e., the loud noise and bustle of the city. "Their waves," i.e., the surging masses of the conquering army, roar like many or great waters; cf. Isaiah 17:12. נתּן , lit., "there is given" (i.e., there sounds) "the noise of their voice," i.e., of the roaring of their waves. "For there comes on Babylon a destroyer, so that her heroes are made prisoners, and her bows (by synecdoche for weapons) broken in pieces." The Piel חתּתה has here an intransitive sense, "to break or shiver into pieces," like פּתּח, Isaiah 48:8; Isaiah 60:11. This must take place, for Jahveh is a God of retribution; cf. Jeremiah 51:24. This retribution He will execute in such a way as to make the princes, wise men, rulers, and heroes of Babylon sink down into an eternal sleep, by presenting to them the cup of wrath. On השׁכּרתּי and וישׁנוּ, cf. Jeremiah 51:39. On the enumeration of the different classes of leaders and supporters of the state, cf. Jeremiah 51:23 and Jeremiah 50:35; and on the designation of Jahveh as King, Jeremiah 48:15, with the remark there made.